Washington, DC is exactly what a capital city ought to look like. Broad avenues, a huge greenspace running through the middle of it, flanked by all of the halls of power and populated with statues and memorials dedicated to past leaders. Essentially a Southern city, Washington is a government district (hence the DC designation for "District of Columbia") on the banks of the Potomac River, right on the border between Maryland and Virginia. Named for the nation's first president, George Washington, the city is co-managed by the U.S. government and locally-elected city leaders, in a political oddity that could only come from a place that bears the name "Foggy Bottom." Washington, the leader, rarely went there and always referred to the place as "the Federal city," thereby illustrating that it is possible to be a political leader and also have a modicum of modesty.

Today, Washington has a population of just over 582,000, but it sits amidst the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area that has a population of more than 8 million. Government is the primary business in Washington, and it has been that way since its founding in July, 1790. No less than Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton decided at dinner one evening where it would be located. Originally designed as a diamond, with 10 miles on each side, the lower half of the city was given back to the State of Virginia in 1846. During the War of 1812, the British burned Washington to the ground, and only the home of the commandant of the Marine Corps was untouched out of respect by the British soldiers. Not so fortunate were the White House, the Capitol and the Treasury buildings, all burned and gutted. Despite being the capital city of freedom, during the 1830s, the District of Columbia was one of the largest slave trading centers in the nation. By the time of the American Civil War, Washington had grown to some 75,000 population. In 1864, Confederate soldiers raided Washington, fighting a pitched battle at Fort Stevens, which is located near the present-day Walter Reed Army Medical Center in northwest Washington. It is the only time in American history that a sitting U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln, was present and under enemy fire while in office.

In 1950, Washington's population peaked at 802,000, and then radically shrank to its present-day level as suburban migration took its toll. However, today, Washinton swells each day to nearly 1 million people as the commuters drive in from the nearby Virginia and Maryland countryside. In April, 1968, a violent, fiery riot broke out in downtown Washington following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. It took four days before the rioting ended, and at one point, rioters were only two blocks from the White House, prompting then President Lyndon B. Johnson to order more than 13,000 federal troops into the city. It was the largest occupation of an American city since the Civil War. Although the 1976 bicentennial and the development of the Washington Metro subway system helped bring investment and re-development back to the city, the downtown still bears scars of the riot with vacant lots where damaged buildings were torn down and never re-built.

The National Mall, the huge greenspace in the middle of the city, connects the Capitol Building with the White House and at the far end, with the Lincoln Memorial, flanked by the Tidal Basin and the Potomac River. All along the Mall are the centers of American government, virtually all of the well-known Departments of bureaucracy from Agriculture to Transportation. Also along the Mall is the largest concentration of museums and galleries in the world, led by The Smithsonian, a collection of 16 facilities that range from the Air and Space Museum to the National Zoo. Squarely in the middle of the Mall is the Washington Monument, and just to the south the Jefferson Memorial and the world-famous cherry trees that blossom each spring around the shores of the Tidal Basin. Washington is traversed by three major naturally-flowing bodies of water, the Potomac River, the Anacostia River and Rock Creek, and there are three man-made reservoirs within the city.

In terms of total area, Washington is relatively small, with 68.3 square miles, of which nearly seven square miles is water. Elevations range from sea level along the Potomac to 410 feet in height in Tenleytown in Northwest DC, north of Georgetown. City streets in DC are organized in a grid pattern beginning at the U.S. Capitol Building. North-south roads are numbered, while east-west roads are lettered. Also dissecting the grid are diagonal roads named after specific states, i.e., Pennsylvania Avenue. Within the grid all of the streets are part of one of four quadrants, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. All the road names end with the appropriate suffix (NE, NW, SE or SW). Although possibly confusing, the first-time visitor may want to use the Washington Metro, a public transit system combining subway and public buses, before trying to navigate the streets.

Although a city of politics and culture, Washington is also a city of business, and ranks third behind New York and Chicago in terms of commercial downtown office space. Gross state product of the district is more than $75 billion, ranking it 36th compared to the other 50 states. Many corporations maintain offices in Washington, along with defense and civilian federal contractors, nonprofit organizations, law and lobbying firms, catering and administrative services companies. And, even more are to be found in the nearby Virginia and Maryland suburbs.

There are nearly a quarter-million households in Washington, and median household income is just over $40,000. Per capital income is $28,660, and the average median home in DC costs approximately $440,000. That level of cost may explain why the Maryland and Virginia suburbs have grown so significantly in the past 50 years. More affordable housing can be found in the counties surrounding DC, with median priced homes ranging from $143,000 to $290,000.

Nevertheless, Washington, DC is the center of power and politics in the U.S., and with eclectic urban neighborhoods, Southern charm and an unending list of things to do, it's a city well worth consideration as a place to live, work and raise a family.